Time Master Reviews

Mastering this game makes for a frightfully good Time. See what I did there? No, but seriously: Time Master is a solid entry to the 3D Puzzle game genre, delightful for both casual players or hardcore completionists. Casual players will enjoy the calm music and the plentiful challenges the puzzles present; hardcore completionists will enjoy the thrill of finally achieving that third star through not only solving the puzzle, but through perfect execution -- this game makes you work HARD for that third star at times, in a way that is a bit unique to the genre given its unique "paradox" mechanic, which allows time to truly be of the essence (and the essence, likewise, to truly be of the time?). Because you unlock new challenges whether or not you ace a level, however, there's always something to step away to if you find yourself getting overly frustrated with any given puzzle. I do think there's room for a skosh more leeway in terms of that third star at times, but because the game makes time masterfully tight, it's deliciously rewarding when you finally succeed just before the second rolls over.

A fun time-based puzzler with a lovely aesthetic. The puzzles are very well designed with most of the challenge coming from trying to complete the puzzles fast enough to get three stars. Early boards are easy enough to three-star that when the challenge ramps up I just [i] knew [/i] I could do that level one second faster. And the most difficult levels left me pondering what I missed to be thirty seconds over a one-star rating. I never felt frustrated, just challenged. The game does an excellent job of teaching the mechanics as you go, adding abilities like removing blocks and freezing or melting water. The brain-bending time mechanics lead to some ingenious puzzle designs that gave me a sense of accomplishment when I completed the trickier ones. Highly recommended!

Time Master is a great puzzle game that really has you thinking to solve each level. From the start of the intro scene you are drawn into a the world of the characters, which I have to say are hyper cute. The world is beautifully created with high level graphics that make it pleasant to spend time in. Forward planning is needed to complete the puzzles which increase slightly in complexity as you continue each level. You get a chance to learn fun and new mechanics and then discover these in different variations as you move through the game, remembering what you've learnt before to complete the puzzles. I very much enjoyed playing Time Master and if you like puzzles that require thinking outside the box and beyond the realms of time and space then you will too.

I'm enjoying the level design in this one, and even simple things like stepping on a button or pushing a box become a lot more complicated when dealing with both a present and past self. I mostly scored 1 or 2 stars as the timing for the 3rd is pretty strict and can require a lot of retries to get. The default control scheme worked fine for me and the game does a pretty good job of judging your intentions and avoiding accidentally falling off the level. One suggestion I have is being able to speed up the game during long time rewinds and also moments when you're standing still and waiting for your past self to progress.

TL;DR: 9/10 - Made me smile, made me rage. Hallmarks of a great puzzle game. - 30 seconds on one puzzle. 4 hours on another. 100% achievements 15 hours later - Tried my best but still needed helpful hints from the devs in discord for 2 puzzles. "THiS IS hARdER thAN IT loOKs" "PeRhAps..." "wHat tO dO" You know you're invested when the idle animation sounds feel like annoying taunts because you're taking too long. (seriously, had to mute the game, was ready to punch Zeno.) Took me 15 hours to get all achievements (beating the story would take [i] significantly[/i] less) so I can definitely say it's a puzzle game with some depth. If you're in it for the story, you'll probably have no problem getting through it all as the game only turns [b]hard[/b] after you've gotten significantly far into the puzzle count. Hard enough to bust out paint for planning and spend 4 hours on a single puzzle. [spoiler] For me, hitting T46 was like a unforgiving spiked brick wall when I practically sped-ran and aced each puzzle before that. Also fuck T48, it was the puzzle that made me crack and search for hints. [/spoiler] If you enjoy elements of playing with time to get to victory, this game hits it out of the park. Although you will have to get used to quirks of the game which can be maddening. Some times instead of simple mechanics it can turn into an agility game of jumping and fighting to move a box in the direction you need fast enough. And not everything adheres to the laws of time, but you'll get used it and carry on. [spoiler] bridges magically falling without touching but boxes stop falling when pausing time? [/spoiler]

《Time Master》 is a level based, puzzle solving game that requires players to utilize time rewind mechanics to solve each puzzle. As players progress through each level, challenges becomes more and more difficult in terms of 'depth' (number of steps required to complete a puzzle) and 'width' (new mechanics appears in the puzzle). After 20+ levels, the layout of the map may seem daunting at first glace, however, every iteration of trials and errors leads players to get to know more about the map and eventually, should easily identify the bottleneck of the puzzle and solve accordingly. The gameplay experience could be described as an interesting mind activity, where players trying to figure out the developer's creative thought process and comes to admire the cleverness hidden beneath the surface level. Besides the puzzle design one other thing that caught my attention is the soothing music, which is exceptionally well-made and suit the pacing of the gameplay very well. My only complaint will be the camera angle - due to the perspective of the camera, it is sometimes hard to see whether 2 cubes are aligned or how far away from each other. Although the game allows players to rotate the camera 45 degrees one at a time - it is still kinda annoying to press the button several times to get to the 'right' angle - a degree-free mouse movement to control the camera will be a more intuitive way for me personally. I bought the game with the expectation to immerse myself into interesting puzzle solving journey for 1~2 hours, which the game definitely delivers in this respect. Hence, I gave 《Time Master》 a recommendation.

Time Master is a puzzle game that ensures a proper brain workout for the day. The puzzles are, unsurprisingly, based around time manipulation; you collect all crystals in a given field by first recording some first step actions and then letting the previously recorded 'you' do whatever you made it do while your present self goes off to benefit from the recordings actions. The hurdles put in your way during various stages vary from collapsing bridges to one-time activated switches, boxes, spells, ice and slight platforming. Most stages have a couple ways to approach them, but often only one route will be the most efficient to ensure getting the highest ranking for each level. The challenges are fair, though it may at times be easy to get stuck as new levels may require you to think of new approaches to previously used hurdles. Luckily if you're extremely stuck, but don't want to look at a walkthrough for the level you can get hints by joining MorpheusZ's discord or, I'd imagine, even by tagging them on twitter (latter option not confirmed, I know this developer to be extremely reactive there as well!), though sadly these hints aren't also implemented in the game itself in more than rerouting you to the discord. Either way, do highly recommend the game. It floors me to know that this was a one person passion project considering how polished it is. Especially graphically this is an extremely nice game to look at and the animations, too, are very smooth. Story may not blow you away with its twists and turns, but it is always appreciated when one is there to spice an already pleasant experience.

I really like nice bright graphics and effects of this game. Gameplay is good and polished. It reminds me Braid but in 3d. Sometimes it is hard to understand how to solve some levels. It will be good to have some help in game in this case.

Very nice puzzler. It wasn't too ambitious, which means it had just the right length before the puzzles were becoming repetetive. The premise itself isn't new, basically you create a copy of yourself to solve parallel tasks you couldn't solve in time or at all, if you were alone. And tasks mean collecting crystals on a diorama and then reaching the exit. Many such games I played allowed you to create several copies, but this one allows you always just one, it's designed for 2 parallel tasks which results in not too complex, rather short puzzles, with still some nooks and cranies, as you have to think at least one cycle ahead. There are often times signals, like crystals in an dead end, which help you to rule out beforehand on which cycle you have to do what. My favourite levels were actually those where tricks were involved where you had to stop time. Some levels have a very short first cycle, but a much longer second cycle, that means they were designed with buffer time in mind and most of the time these result in setups where both timelines interact with eachother, like pushing a crate to block an projectile that was required in the first cycle, but destroys something you need for a task later on in the second cycle. There were not many elements but it felt like they were utilized to their fullest potential in the course of the [spoiler] 61 [/spoiler] trials. (well besides the seesaw perhaps as it wasn't used in many levels) Towards the end there were a few trials where I had the feeling the creator was running out of ideas, but they were really just a few where I thought "what's the point?" My favourite element were the crystal proxys, who collect the most nearby crystal, so by changing the order how you collect these crystal you might be able to collect those who are in dead ends. This was the most innovative element in my opinion and it keeps the puzzles interesting if you can't always rule out every dead end. I didn't need any guides. Not even for the achievement where you had to break an level with mad plattformer skills. I would say in terms of difficulty the game is towards the center of an scale, which was probably intended. It's also comfortable to play, as you can decide to reset only the the second cycle, so you never have too much to repeat because you slipped up later on. Time is also freezed until you start to move. So while there is a time limit it never feels stresful the levels were perfectly catered to that aspect. The only thing which can be a bit wonky is pushing crates, as they aren't pushed in a grid. There are fully voiced cutscenes that narrate a cute little story about a young clumsy mage trying to rescue his cheeky little sister, which he exiled without his knowing. The story is a good motivator to keep you going between puzzle sessions, even though it's nothing special. I expected some sort of twist to be honest as you can't see the sister and only have to trust her voice. Something you've already done with the villain of the story. I mean she didn't need to be evil, perhaps she could've been not your real sister or something along the way, but it's fine I wasn't here for the story and am surprised how much effort was flowing into the cutscenes, so I didn't expect that much narration from begin with. I can fully recommend the game to any puzzle-game lover. It has really a nice pace and shows how well it executes its few elements.

This game will make your brain melt, only for you to finally have that eureka moment, think you have solved the puzzle, and get slapped in the face just before the goal because you missed one part of the solution. 10/10 would feel stupid again.